November 25, 2019

Dennis Swingle

1101 E Chestnut St

Mt Vernon, Ohio

I am going to speak about the “preservation of the public peace, health and safety” in the east end!

I spoke with Mr. Hillier last Thursday about a full size tanker truck carrying gasoline past my house on N. Edgewood Road heading north toward Coshocton Ave. Mr. Hillier told me I’m wasting my time bringing this problem to City Council. Well, I strongly disagree.

My security camera records the passing of traffic on Edgewood and stores the data for 30 days. I called the police dispatcher and as usual was asked 5 or 6 questions before the dispatcher sent an officer to look for the law breaker. Of course, by the time the officer was dispatched, the offender had most certainly reached Coshocton Ave. This is why I am tired of calling the police department every time I see another semi truck traveling through a residential neighborhood.

I see semi trucks fairly regularly. One I see is a full size semi transporting tree trunks to a sawmill. It comes through regularly traveling north on Edgewood. In the first place the guy has no business being on Edgewood, and secondly I know of no sawmill capable of processing logs that large in the area north of here.

I have to ask: am I wasting my time speaking to you about these issues? I hope not. Semi trucks using the whole east end as a thoroughfare is causing a dangerous situation for the peace of mind and safety of the residents and children. Let me take this a step further and relate to you the problem we have with cars speeding down Chestnut Street from Verndale Drive to N. Edgewood. When looking at the studies Brian Ball conducted 24 hour traffic study about 4 years ago and he found 466 cars traveling at 40 to 69 MPH in a 25 MPH zone. Now let me speculate, what if this gasoline hauler wound up in front of one of these speeding vehicles? What a catastrophe would have occurred at the intersection of E. Chestnut and N. Edgewood. How many lives would have been lost and how many houses would have been burnt to the ground?

So am I wasting my time pointing out such a critical situation that threatens life and limb of the residents of the city that this administration represents or will the administration act before something catastrophic occurs? The responsibility of the city government is “the preservation of the public peace, health and safety”

Citizens for Responsive Government